Friday, May 03, 2019

North Korea's Hunger

Four in 10 North Koreans are chronically short of food and further cuts to already minimal rations are expected after the worst harvest in a decade, the United Nations said on Friday.

Official rations are down to 300 grammes - under 11 ounces - per person per day, the lowest ever for this time of year, the UN said following a food security assessment based on UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) missions to the country last month and in November 2018.

It found that 10.1 million people were suffering from severe food insecurity, "meaning they do not have enough food till the next harvest," WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel said.
The shortfall is the result of climatic conditions such as "dry spells, heatwaves and flooding" as well as a lack of fuel and fertilisers - in part caused by international sanctions.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yet, for some:

In summary, one evident outcome of the recent growth and diversification of North Korea’s consumer economy is a surprising range of excellent restaurants in the capital. These, in turn, cater to a taste that is increasingly sophisticated and well acquainted with not only Korean food but also Chinese, Japanese, and to some extent European food (if there is such a thing) too. It was difficult to choose just five restaurants because there are many more that we’ve discovered which are worth introducing. Perhaps I will introduce more in a future post, but for now I leave you with this appetizer from Pyongyang’s restaurant scene:
http://bit.ly/2ZS4GfH